By Annie Sweeney
Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO — Technically, the Chicago police officers were recognized for how quickly they moved to scoop up a reputed gang member -- in about four minutes -- and gather evidence to show he’d bashed a woman’s face with a brick.
But what Frances Hitchcock, 60, remembers just as much are the days and months after, when the officers continued to reassure her that she could still feel safe in her Far North Side neighborhood.
“I felt that somebody was on my side,” Hitchcock said. “That I was gonna get justice somewhere down the line.”
All told, five officers were recognized Wednesday at a department award ceremony for solving the case. Officer Daniel Lardino accepted the award at a ceremony in which several other officers also were recognized.
Hitchcock was assaulted in September 2008 by a reputed gang member from her Rogers Park neighborhood who wanted to fight her grandson, she said.
As Julio Hernandez and a few others gathered beneath her window in the 1400 block of West Pratt Boulevard, Hitchcock leaned out to tell them her grandson wouldn’t fight. She then told them: “Why don’t you all just go ahead and leave?”
Hernandez, 20, allegedly stepped from behind a tree and pitched a brick at Hitchcock’s face. It hit her so hard that emergency responders thought she’d been shot, she said. Hitchcock suffered a fractured jaw and skull and required stiches across one cheek.
Two days later, the family spotted Hernandez and called police.
Lardino, 49, responded with his partner, Officer James Kurth, who also was recognized Wednesday. The 13-year officer said he was startled by Hitchcock’s injuries -- even two days after her attack. “She was all lumped up,” Lardino said. “She looked like something out of a horror movie.”
The partners, who are assigned to a Belmont Area police team, headed out with a description of Hernandez, including his clothing and the fact that he went by the nickname “Rabbit.”
Within four minutes, Hernandez crossed in front of their car on Morse Avenue, Lardino said. As they frisked him, Lardino nonchalantly asked Hernandez what name he went by on the street. Hernandez answered right away -- “Rabbit.”
The officers then brought Hernandez back to where Hitchcock was waiting so she could identify him.
“Here she gets clocked with a brick, and the poor soul doesn’t know what to do after that,” Lardino recalled. “It makes you angry. ... He’s hopping around the neighborhood like he didn’t do anything to anybody.”
The officers gathered around her, one urging her to step out from behind a van where she was hiding, she said. “He said, ‘Ain’t nothing gonna happen, Frances,’” she said. “We’ve all got guns.”
Hernandez later pleaded guilty to aggravated battery and was sentenced to 2 years in prison, court records show.
Hitchcock’s face remains partially numbed from the attack. She still is fearful every time she walks out of her house. The grandmother is soothed, however, by the officers who, nearly a year after her attack, remain in touch. “They said, ‘Frances, we’re watching.’”
Copyright 2009 Chicago Tribune